Wireless devices such as personal digital assistants, cellular telephones, and the like can provide a platform for playing digital media content, such as music, news, sports reports, and other types of media. The media may be audio, visual, or both audio plus visual data. The media content is streamed from a server on a computer network (such as the Internet) over an air interface to the wireless device using known wireless technology. The wireless device includes buttons or other user interface devices that the user uses to select the media content they wish to experience. A streaming media application, referred to herein interchangeably as a media client application, plays the content as well as provides an interface to a media distribution application resident on the network.
Wireless devices (also referred to as wireless access terminals) may engage in packet-data communications via a wireless access network that provides access to the Internet or other packet-switched networks. As such, an access terminal may wirelessly engage in a streaming media session by connecting in a coverage area or sector of a wireless access network, requesting media content stored on a content server, and receiving a real-time data stream of the media content via the access network and packet-switched network. Typically a gateway assists the user of an access terminal with the selection of media content to be streamed. In particular, the user may be provided with a media content descriptor (MCD) file, which has direct link to the media content stored on the content server. Thus, when the user clicks on the link displayed in a streaming player application, the access terminal requests the content from the content server.
The underlying technology for streaming media content to a wireless device is known in the art. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,587,837; 6,564,263; 6,449,638 and 6,548,747 for background description of streaming media content technology. The content of these patents is incorporated by reference herein. Media session announcement, session invitation and session initiation for wireless devices over internetworks is typically performed in accordance with the Session Description Protocol, which is described in the IETF Request for Comments 2327, M. Handley et al., dated April 1998, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Media session coordination and initiation is also described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,205,140 and 6,359,902, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.